For conveying boxes and other articles from place to place in industrial plants, it has been found convenient to provide channel irons in which rollers are mounted. The channel irons may be placed in parallel relationship along a path in which the articles are desired to be moved. The boxes or other articles may be placed on top of the rollers and pushed or allowed to move by gravity on top of the rollers to the place where they may be wanted.
The roller conveyors heretofore available have commonly consisted of a metal channel which is U-shaped in cross section with each side extending upwardly and being provided with spaced slots which extend downwardly from the top edge of the side members and which hold the ends of the shafts. The rollers extend transversely of the sides and have shafts extending through their axial centers with one end portion of the shaft being received in a slot in one side and the other end portion of the shaft being received in a slot in the other side. Such a roller conveyor is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,209,879.
A difficulty with the roller conveyors above described is that the rollers may be bumped or pushed in such a way that an end of the shaft may pop out of its slot in the side member and rest on the top of the side member. Even one roller out of place presents an obstruction to packages moving over the conveyor and this may disrupt the flow of material in a plant.
I have therefore set about to provide a roller conveyor structure which will avoid the accidental displacement of the rollers within the channel irons. At the same time I want to provide a structure which is simple, easy to assemble and when the occasion demands, will permit intentional removal of the rollers from the channel iron. Other objects and advantages of the improved structure will be apparent as this specification proceeds.